Pakistani Ex-PM Sharif To Return For Jail Term As Son-In-Law Surrenders

July 08, 2018

Supporters of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif shout slogans during a protest after an accountability court sentenced Nawaz Sharif to 10 years of imprisonment.

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Pakistani Ex-PM Sharif To Return For Jail Term As Son-In-Law Surrenders

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Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will return to his country on July 13 to face jail, his daughter has said.

The statement by Maryam Nawaz on July 7 came a day after a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) court handed Sharif a 10-year jail term for assets and properties such as upscale flats in London.

Nawaz, considered to be her father's political heir, was also sentenced to a seven-year term in connection with the same case. Her husband, Mohammad Safdar, was handed one year after being found guilty of abetment.

Sharif and his daughter are currently in London, where the former prime minister's wife is undergoing cancer treatment.

"We have decided to return on [July 13]," she said, adding that that lawyers are exploring the case through all legal angles.

Safdar, meanwhile, surrendered himself on July 8 to police in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where he was arrested after leading a rally of supporters.

Safdar had gone into hiding following his conviction on July 6.

Officer Raja Taifur said anticorruption authorities took Safdar into custody, according to The Associated Press.

Mushahidullah Khan, a senator with Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, said that "workers from all across the country will reach the airport to welcome their leader" when Sharif lands in Pakistan.

NAB teams are expected to arrest both father and daughter as soon as they arrive.

"We have made arrangements for the arrest of Sharif and his daughter at Lahore and Islamabad airports to implement court orders," NAB spokesman Bilal Punnu told dpa on July 8.

Sharif, 67, was removed as prime minister and disqualified from politics for life by the Supreme Court in 2017 over undeclared assets.

He has described the court proceedings against him as politically motivated and a judicial witch-hunt.

The Sharif family say they legitimately bought the properties. But the NAB has said the family has been unable to explain how it paid for them.